The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

300 THE HINDU RENAISSANCE
has been rightly suggested that this typical
Dravidian form is an adaptation of a Buddhist
vihara, in which successive storeys were added
for the accommodation of the monks. 21 The
terminal member of the structure is a bulbous
sikhara, which is repeated in smaller scale on
each of the lower levels of the terraced superstructure.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature
of this and the other raths at Mamallapuram
lies in the open verandahs on the ground-storey.
The pillars are of a distinctive Pallava type with
the shafts of the columns supported by the
bodies of seated lions.
A different type of structure is represented
by Sahadeva's rath, which must be classified
as a vesara temple [233B]. It is a longitudinal
building with a barrel roof of the so-called
elephant-back type, faithfully reproduced in
the carving. This vault, terminating in the semidome
of an apse and with the chaitya motif at its
opposite end, is very obviously a survival of the
Buddhist chaitya-hall that, as we have seen,
had persisted in such structural temples as the
Gupta example at Chezarla and, to a modified
extent, the Durga temple at Aihole.
Bhima's rath, so called, is distinguished by a
simple barrel roof with its cross section, a chaitya
arch, at either end. It is crowned by a row of
stupikas. A later structural development of the
form of Bhima's rath may be seen in the Vaital
Deul at Bhuvanesvar in Orissa. It has been suggested
that we are to see here the prototype for
the gopuras or porch-towers of the later architecture
of southern India. Another distinctive
element of the Pallava style may be seen in the
gavaksha motif of chaitya arches framing busts
of deities that crown the entablature. These
framed protomes, already seen at Bhitargaori,
become a regular feature of Dravidian architecture
and may also be found in the earliest
Hindu and Buddhist shrines in Cambodia.
A third type of building represented among
the raths at Mamallapuram may be seen in
233B. Mamallapuram, Sahadeva rath